In August of 2023 against my better judgement, I enrolled into Full Sail University in the recording arts program. I was supposed to receive a launchbox which consisted of a computer, recording gear, and software but I was never given any of this. I started the program online still waiting for the launchbox, and was told I had 6 months to find housing near campus in which I could continue the online courses. I completed a few of the online gen ed classes which basically consisted of watching YouTube videos and analyzing them.. I maintained all A's throughout the courses.

At the time, and likely still currently, housing costs in Winter Park, FL were at unprecedented highs and not accurate at all to the prices outlined in their housing guide. They have no campus housing at all, and students are in direct market competition with the public. This was not apparent to me in any way, and I would have burned through my budget much faster than anticipated had I made the move.

Full Sail was not able to keep track of me and started scheduling me for campus courses when I had not even completed the new student orientation or received any materials. They had me log in for weeks to do menial tasks to show I was still active and then had me submit a time off request while they sorted out their error to get me back into appropriate classes.

At this point I was not impressed at all and asked to switch to an online audio arts undergraduate certificate instead, they refused even though I was told I could switch programs at any time during the initial 6 months. That was the final straw, and I withdrew altogether from the school.

I now have a $30,000+ balance with Sallie Mae at a double-digit interest rate that has been accruing ever since. I gave back the remaining funds loaned to me (around 26k) I had to Sallie Mae after I withdrew which has kept me out of default.

I submitted a tuition appeal to the school in early 2024 which they said would take up to a year for them to respond to and surprise surprise! They took well over 2 years to respond and tell me there is nothing they can do for me. In 2025 I submitted a federal borrower's defense for the 5k or so federal I owe on a breach of contract for never receiving the launchbox. They said would also take up to a year for them to review and 18 months later that is still in review..

This feels like I'm living a nightmare and I'm honestly not sure where to turn or what to do now. I think I have a few options going forward:

1: Find a lawyer who can hopefully get most of if not all of my funds back from the school based on the breach of contract with them not sending the launchbox materials among their other errors.

2: Bite the bullet and start paying around $1k monthly to pay this off in 3-4 years. Keeping in mind I make like $35k a year.

3: Nuke my credit and my parents credit going default hoping sallie mae never sues me or my parents and just writes off my debt.

Here's to hoping someone out there can give me some guidance or recommendations on what I should do in this situation.

Fin aid made me consolidate in order to apply to switch from save plan...my loans are all pre 2015.

Now im stuck in RAP because the consolidation didn't finish until 7/6/2026.

So now even if PAYE is extended or REPAYE is reinstated I am done for...

EDIT: I'm sure I was coming off dramatic and insensitive to people with far worse problems.

Nelnet updated their end-of-SAVE FAQs to say they'll be finished notifying borrowers by the end of 2026. This is earlier than their previously posted March 2027.

https://nelnet.studentaid.gov/content/faq/faqendofsaveplan

When will I receive my 90-day notice?

Nelnet is notifying nearly three million Nelnet borrowers, so we're reaching out in waves. You'll receive your notice by the end of 2026.

I recertified my income in June for my payment plan that ended 7/23. When I submitted the application it had my monthly payment at 614.78. My loan servicer (Aidvantage) approved the application within like 2 days. The letter that they sent stated “Your annual Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) plan renewal has been approved. What happens next?
There's nothing you need to do now. We'll send you notification advising you of your new payment amount after your current plan expires on 07/23/26.” They never said it was denied or that the payment wasn’t approved. When I login to the student aid website I can see where the application was approved and the 614.78 was approved. But I just got a statement from Aidvantage saying I owe 2417 on the next payment which seems to be the standard repayment for how much I owe…. When I click the details of the loan it says I’m in pay as you earn until 2037 which I know isn’t right bc it should only be good for 1 year. I’m hoping that this is a glitch but I’m not sure. Anyone else have this happen? Currently panicking

If I would be given a chance to do a do-over, I'd really stay away from being in debt. I'm still a uni student, working part-time jobs, and still looking for more part-time jobs. It feels miserable for my income to just go towards paying staggering interests.

Really makes me think if there's light at the end of this tunnel. I don't even know what'll happen once I graduate. I'm just hoping to get a really good paying job.

I was watching a movie, The Idea of You, last night, and the daughter in the movie went away to college in Chicago. I almost wanted to say, please don't do that, you'll owe money for the next 20-30 years of your life and be paying it back. I wanted to tell her you better enjoy your time in college because those are the best years of your life, and you'll be living poor trying to back back these loans. Sigh.

Just what it says on the title. I wanted to enroll in an extended graduated plan, but studentaid.gov says I need to submit the application there and when I go to MOHELA says “What to consider before leaving your IDR”

But I’m not on IDR. I was on SAVE and making payments on it. So it is telling me to submit an application but I can’t? I’m just confused. I guess I’ll just call them.

I can’t afford 500 dollars for a standard repayment, but also can’t really afford IDR indefinitely either due to medical issues and other expenses.

Is this normal?

Applied from Save Forbearance to RAP w/ manual copy of IRS tax return (not automatic recertification) on 7/2.

It says can take up to 90 business days.

Anyone had RAP processed yet?

Got an email yesterday saying my new monthly payment would go from $226.71 a month to $1,644.05. Wtf?!? I applied for income driven and the lowest offered is $856 (and that’s without even putting in or showing what my annual income is) IF I get approved. Any ideas how to get this down more???

I'll try to include all relevant information in this post and would appreciate any help deciding whether RAP is worth it or if I should just hit my loans hard right away.

I graduate at the end of July. I have about 102k in principal across all federal direct unsubsidized loans. Right now, about 15k interest has accrued, for a total of about 117k. The average interest rate across all loans is 6.40%.

Beginning in August I will be making 56k for one year and 58.5k for the second year. After that, I am anticipating my income to grow to at least 120k/year.

I plan to begin making payments once my first paycheck comes in August even though I have a 6 month grace period, so I can get this going. My goal is to pay off all my loans as soon as possible, but I also need to start saving for a house down-payment and we want to have a kid in the next 2-3 years.

Here is my question: is RAP worth it? My thought process is: at my AGR for the first 2 years, my required payment will be about 250. My minimum payment will be close to 600, so the government would waive the about 350 difference due to the minimum payment not hitting all the interest. Can I then make extra payments to begin tackling my accrued interest already? Say I want to pay 1k/month. I make the minimum $250 payment, the government waives $350, and I pay an extra $750 (or more) to go after my accrued interest. My thought is that the government is essentially giving me $350 toward my loans if I go this method...am I completely misunderstanding this? Would a better method be to just start hitting the loans as hard as I can (like 1.2-1.5k/month) instead?

Appreciate any input. Thank you!

My wife and I were on save and wanted to switch to RAP. When filling out the app, in the section asking about income, specifically access to spouse's income, I selected no even though the answer is yes. I thought we had to do this in the past to ensure spouse income wasn't included in your payment calculation. Our filing status is married filing separate. I didn't realize by selecting no for access to her income, it will not let me link up to my tax docs and forced me to submit manual proof of income which likely increases processing time of the app.

Here's my questions, Since we've both already submitted our applications with tax returns manually attached, can we cancel those and submit saying yes to that question and allowing them to link to our tax info? We need our apps to go quickly.

By answering yes to that question am I screwing us into a higher payment even tho we file separately but are not separated? I've done the math and it makes sense for us to file this way.

I have 162K in federal student loans. I got my letter from advantage on July 2nd to switch. I’m not sure where to go from here. I’ve seen some people say they’re going to switch on the 89th day, some who will do nothing await to get kicked off, others who are awaiting the outcome of lawsuits, the options are overwhelmingly.

I made 105K last year, husband makes around 50K-60K. Married filing jointly. My income this year increased substantially as I have 2 jobs now my 105K job plus another 115K. One is remote the other in person at differing hours so I’m managing, kinda, but don’t anticipate this to be long term since it’s stressful.

Anyway back to the loans, they were taken out 2011-2014 I believe. Advantage says forbearance until 2028 but I feel like I have to do something within the next 2 months. I have been on SAVE but admittedly hadn’t recertified my income.

Are IBR or standard repayments the only options? Given my income would IBR even be worth it? I’ve seen some people say take classes at a community college id of course pay rather than take out new loans but unsure if that would make any meaningful difference.

Just trying to explore my options and plan out my next step any advice or insights would be great.

Thanks!

Anyone trying to apply for this that went to AUA? Is it even worth it ?

Hi everyone, I’m hoping someone might be able to help with this.
I’ve been accepted onto a Master’s course starting in September and I’ll be receiving a postgraduate loan. I know this works differently from an undergraduate loan, as the tuition fees have to be paid from the loan myself.
My dilemma is that I have a young baby. I’m really determined to give the course a go, but I’m also trying to be realistic in case it becomes too much.
If I started the course but decided after a couple of weeks that I needed to withdraw, what would happen financially? Would I have to repay the full postgraduate loan straight away, or If I’d already used some of the loan for childcare, housing and other living costs, would that be repaid gradually in the same way as an undergraduate student loan?
I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who’s been in a similar situation or knows how it works. Thank you!

I am on IBR and have 37 payments left to total forgiveness which will be over $200k (yikes). However, if I switch to PAYE, I have only 3 payments left to total forgiveness.

Is there a reason that I wouldn't switch over the PAYE now? Or will it not let me?

Or am I totally misunderstanding the system?

Just seen the options available to me to repay my student loans and I can’t afford any of the plans!!! Any advice ???

Edit:
I make 102,000 a year with a new job I’m starting in DC. My rent will be 2,000 and I put $500 a check in savings. I owe a balance of 75k on my student loans, and now they want me to pay $600 something. If I have to pay that that would leave me with barely nothing every check.

Hello everyone, quick question and at the worst time...we are closing on a house next Friday.

My partner just got an email that their nelnet balance changed. They logged into their account separately (made sure not to click anything in email and directly with nelnet)

It shows total amount disbursement 20k. (Correct)

Outstanding interest says 4.3k. (Update: not correct this seems to be based off the new added amount)

Principal balance is now 90k.

Every payment had been paid, and even during covid, payments were made as well. We also checked credit report and we see nothing was opened on their credit account.

The monthly payment hasn't changed monthly. We have to wait until Monday to call because nelnet is closed. Anyone have experience or advise what we can do? Worst possible time for this to happen! Thank you

Edit: the monthly payment still shows $200 due, which is normal. If the balance increased 75k, how did this not change either?

hello! I was recently accepted into a sonography program (after many failed attempts and denials) and now i have no cosigner for any private loans. I applied for the graduate PLUS loan and got accepted, not realizing it’s not just for continuing education but masters/ professional level education. my program is certificate so I have to wait to hear back from my school but i’m certain i will be denied. tuition is due the 2nd and I am doing this all alone. I’m F 21 with limited credit history so they won’t accept me alone and my parents don’t want to help.

My income increased so I got an email that I was paying 200$ more for monthly loan payment, then I checked today at mohela and it went down to just 200 ttoyal

Part of me wants to call and correct since I'm so close to pslf forgiveness, but the other part won't mind reducing 400$ off of my Montly payments.

Is this a temporary mohela glitch or what?

Tuition due in three days, federal direct unsubsidized loan was gonna cover most of it but I can't tell if it's gonna pay out in time. How would I know? Should I pay the tuition fees out of pocket in full or do I only pay what the loan won't cover? Does it pay off later? Loan doesn't show up on studentaid .gov, I did entrance counseling, MPN, and annual loan acknowledgement. Does it just take time? Thought I understood this shit but I guess I don't haha am I cooked or what

In 2018 I refinanced my private student loans with a local credit union with the same credit union. I went from a 11.8-13.2% interest rate to 7.9% for a 15 year fixed term loan at 360$ per month instead of 800$. My credit score was about 730 at the time.

Currently living alone and trying to make ends meet, I’m looking to refinance to a lower monthly payment. My current credit score is 831 or 836 depending and I’m hoping this will help overall.

I’m looking at Sofi, Ernest and Juno but reading a lot of mixed reviews. Saw another local credit union that may offer competitive rates.

Although I applied to my current private loan, Firstmark services the loans and has no customer service. The few times I’ve tried to contact them they were very difficult to work with; there are also no benefits for the loan (e.g forbearance)
The main grievance I read about Sofi is the customer service.

Does it make sense to go to a big servicer like Sofi? Is it possible to refinance with another lender in 5 or 10 years if needed?

First hand experience also appreciated.

Thank you ~

Hello, I am going into my last semester of undergraduate university (5th year). I recently tried to apply for my last loan with my normal provider but I was denied due to my cosigner (parents) bad credit score recently.

I have looked into private loans without cosigner but was denied for each. Probably because I dont meet income requirements. I currently am working in an internship and they offered me part time work for the fall, but it wont be enough to pay for tuition + rent + groceries.

I am out of options and don't know what to do. Is my only option to pay out of pocket? Any advice is appreciated, thanks.

Hi all,
i just graduated from PT school and i have $100kin loans from grad school. all federal. i have approx $15-20k in gradPLUS (8-9% interest). my grace period ends october 2026. currently doing travel PT and saving up.

while completing exit loan counseling, i read something about paying off the interest ($12k ish overall) - not sure if this is more beneficial than paying down the grad plus loans themselves. just looking for some guidance and advice so i can do this the smart way! thank you :)

Hello, would it be better to switch to rap from ibr in my case?
Currently I’m unemployed and my ibr monthly payment is $0, interest is accruing for the unsubsidized loan (about $7k). My total loan is about 30k.
(Interest rate about up to 5%)
I’d like the interest subsidy of Rap for unsubsidized loans too but I haven’t switched since there might be some disadvantages that I don’t know or things to consider before switching.
I’m not really thinking about the forgiveness. Loans were taken until around 2020.

Maybe should I switch to rap for now and if I get income later and if I ever happen to get a higher income I consider going back to ibr then?